Warp Records have confirmed the sad news that electronic musician Mark Bell passed away last week “from complications after an operation.”
Bell rose to prominence through the late 80s and early 90s as one half of the pioneering duo LFO, who brought the bleep-n-bass sound out of North-England and into the consciousness of the wider public.
LFO had a breakout hit in 1990 with their self-titled track, which went from the clubs to the top 20 and added to the massive rise in the popularity of electronic music throughout the early 90s.
After fellow founder Gex Varley left LFO in 1996, Bell continued to produce under the moniker and also went on to collaborate with other influential artists such as Björk and Depeche Mode.
The prosperous partnership between Bell and Björk saw the British musician produce seven of her albums, including 1997’s Homogenic and 2011’s brilliant Biophilia.
As the sad news spread yesterday, tributes for the pioneering producer flooded social media, possibly the poignant of which was Björk’s tweet of the LFO track ‘Love is the Message’ (below).
lfo – love is the message https://t.co/Ude2OPwHSw
— björk (@bjork) October 13, 2014
Written by Will Van de Pol.
